The market for retro-styled motorcycles is not only one that seems to be expanding year by year, but is also one that has been part of several manufacturers’ ranges for quite some time. So much so that some bikes are being produced that could be said to be a retro version of bikes that were originally produced as retros themselves.
In the main, manufacturers build retro bikes as a reflection of the machines that they had built themselves some 30, 40 or more years ago. And the names from the past are often used in the new models, with a few exceptions, of course. And that desire to reflect upon past glories is clearly a strong one in the motorcycle industry, hence the heavy reliance that the Bloor Triumph empire, as an example, has set on the range of Bonnevilles that the Hinckley factory (and its subsidiary factories abroad) now produce. A reliance on designs, if not technology, from years past is obviously conducive to sales in the 21st Century, and BMW was keen to jump on that particular bandwagon when it launched its monster-motored R18 in April 2020.
But there’s also the thought that retro-styled bikes need not actually reflect the designs and aspirations of a bike that actually existed in the manufacturer’s range. Such is the case with the BMW R nineT. There was no previous R nineT – in contrast to the way
